Thursday, December 4, 2014

Kingston's CP-Served Industries

In addition to the industries served by CP in Kingston located along their former Kingston & Pembroke line linking Kingston with Renfrew, CP served a few other Kingston industries until their line was abandoned in 1986. Bruce Chapman snapped a caboose hop at Glen Tay, ON in December 1970, with RS-23 8035 in the background, heading for Kingston via Tichborne with a tank car likely heading to Superior Propane in Kingston.

Keith Hansen kindly shared a photo of CP RS23 8030 with a northbound train north of Harrowsmith, (above) and CP S-3 6591 heading into Kingston through the joint trackage with CN in Harrowsmith on October 28, 1977:

A CP Dayliner was operated as a Bytown Railway Society excursion in 1974, arriving at Harrowsmith on joint trackage, from Ottawa - see bottom photo for the excursion's final destination at CP Express in Kingston. In this background of this photo (below - courtesy Jakob Mueller collection) the CN line to Smiths Falls diverges to the left in the background, and CP's line to Kingston diverging to the right in the background.

Gould Battery(1) and Frontenac Tile(2) are visible in this aerial view via a joint track (arrow) linking CN and CP. Frontenac Tile was on CN track KK30 - 1000 feet in length, and Presland Iron & Metal, 1483 feet. D.A. White Co Ltd (Dago Siding) KK15 was also located here, though I need to learn more about which spur served which company in which era! ADDITIONAL INFO DEC 2015:On a 1924 insurance map, (1) was listed as the Collie Ltd. Woolen Mill. CP served industries farther down the Hanley Spur.

Keith Hansen photographed Trenton Works-built CP covered gondolas spotted in the area of this joint trackage in the mid-60's:

Just north of Kingston, CP spurs led to the Hydro-Electric Power Commission (HEPC, later Ontario Hydro) transformer station at Murvale. This transformer station was at Mi 89.5 of CP's Kingston Subdivision, along Murton Road off Highway 38. HEPC was one of the last two CP customers cited in the 1986 permission to abandon order from the Railway Transport Committee, the other being a feed company in Harrowsmith, Mi 84.8. Neither generated enough traffic to justify continued retention of the line, which in 1984 lost $137,357 according to CP. A current satellite map view shows the former location of this spur leading to the transformer station:

A CP spur also served the oil tank farm south of Highway 401, east of Sydenham Road. A 1937 aerial view shows the tank farm served by rail before Highway 401 was built:

A 1966 aerial view also shows the rail-served tank farm, now visible from Highway 401:

Just east of its run-around track near Dalton Avenue, the CP line continued to the CN-CP interchange at Queens, A Keith Hansen photo taken in May 1978 shows CN and CP both working the interchange, with CP handling a healthy mix of covered gons, CP Rail, International of Maine and Chessie System boxcars:

This online auction site photo shows CP 8030 the same day, with the same Chessie System boxcar, three covered gons and CPR International of Maine boxcar in the consist. It's taken just north of Jackson Mills above Highway 401 before the sweeping curve near Cordukes Road:

CP served two customers between Division and Dalton Streets: Superior Propane and CP Express. Superior received tank cars of propane, spotted at an unloading rack in their fenced yard. CP Express' operation moved from downtown locations in mid-1967. In his book Just Plain Bill, Bill Robertson outlined some of the details of the move:

the City of Kingston was involved in negotiations with CP to acquire all CP lands within city limits: the K&P passenger station was to become the Chamber of Commerce office, and the city was to acquire piggyback ramp/trackage at Ontario St/Place d'Armes as well as the roundhouse property at the foot of North Street.

in exchange, the city would provide the CP with a large tract of land on Dalton Ave, and pay for construction of a terminal to incorporate CP's Kingston offices and CP Express operations as well as the cost of laying trackage into the terminal and Superior Propane

the new site was isolated and subject to repeated thefts!

Two Keith Hansen photos of a CP Express piggyback TOFC car spotted north of Ontario Street in the late-1960's. Note the limestone walls of Fort Frontenac (below) and the coal sheds of Anglin Fuels (above) in the background of the photos:

A 1974 RDC (flying white extra flags and one illuminated white classification light) fantrip over the former Kingston & Pembroke, included a stop for fans to board Kingston city buses at the CP Express property, for a bus tour of downtown. The warehouse/truck loading point is the blue building visible in the background of this Bruce Chapman photo:

Today, the area is occupied by a new Canadian Tire, No Frills and other commercial development, with a large earthen berm separating the area from CN's Kingston Sub. My thanks to Bruce Chapman, Keith Hansen and Jakob Mueller for sharing their photos in this post.

Running extra...

Also in the area, Panera Bread! Opening December 9th! Having just enjoyed some of this chain's bottomless in-store china cup dark roast coffee, whole grain and pumpkin pie bagels, I am looking to my first visit to the north-end Kingston location! I like Panera's day-end dough-nation idea!

Glad you enjoyed the post, Robert. Notice I had to rely on others for their contributions from a (slightly) earlier era. While I also appreciate these classic types of equipment, I was too young/not photographing at the time!

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Rather Sketchy Profile

Eric Gagnon was born in Montreal, Quebec and has lived in Kingston, Ontario most of his life. Much time was spent trackside when not in school, college or practising as a medical laboratory technologist. Married with two children, Eric is also an HO-scale modeller, musician, avid reader and blogger, having launched his Canadian railfan blog Trackside Treasure in 2008. Eric's first book Trackside with VIA:The First 35 Years, published in 2011, was followed by two more in 2012: Trackside with VIA:Cross-Canada Compendium and Consist Companion. In 2017, Eric published his fourth book, Trackside with VIA - Research & Recollections. Eric's books can be found in museum gift shops, hobby shops and in the hands of VIA Rail enthusiasts across Canada, the United States and worldwide.

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